


They Think Me Macbeth

by flibbertygigget



Series: The Other 51 [16]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda, Macbeth - Shakespeare
Genre: Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 08:57:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6698326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flibbertygigget/pseuds/flibbertygigget
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which I examine the extended allusion to <i>Macbeth</i> in "Take a Break."</p>
            </blockquote>





	They Think Me Macbeth

Throughout a section of "Take a Break" from the Broadway musical  _Hamilton_ , there is an extended metaphor in which Hamilton compares him and the people around him to elements from Shakespeare's  _Macbeth._ By examining the metaphor and what it means within its context, we can find a deeper meaning to it beyond the obvious parallel of "Hamilton is ambitious."

> They think me Macbeth  
> Ambition is my folly  
> I'm a polymath, a pain in the ass  
> A massive pain

This is the most simple connection between Hamilton and Macbeth: their ambition, which eventually leads to their ruin. But you'll notice how Hamilton uses the word "think." He obviously doesn't realize just how similar he and Macbeth are, which makes sense. After all, he hasn't failed yet.

> Madison is Banquo

This is, in my opinion, a subtly heartbreaking line. Hamilton likens Madison to Macbeth's friend who tries to flee Macbeth but is assassinated before he can get away. Madison and Hamilton wrote the Federalist Papers together; they were very close during the process of trying to get the Constitution ratified. Hamilton, speaking from the perspective of Macbeth, sees Madison switching sides to join Jefferson against him as a personal betrayal. On the other hand, you have the perspective implied for Madison by likening him to Banquo. He is forced by his conscience to abandon a former friend after, in his mind, that friend begins to skirt towards tyranny.

> Jefferson's Macduff

On the other hand, there's Macduff, who is never shown except in opposition to Macbeth. Within _Hamilton_ , this makes Jefferson an antagonistic figure, but this piece of the metaphor alludes to something deeper than that. In  _Macbeth_ , Macduff is perhaps the most moral and principled of the characters and ends up vanquishing Macbeth. Though this is not directly paralleled by Jefferson, it isn't hard to see how, in a musical with so much emphasis on how history is told, this is a reference to how Jefferson is seen today. Jefferson always has been and always shall be a giant on par with Washington among the Founders, while Hamilton's position fluctuates with the political atmosphere and the economy. Historically speaking, Jefferson is Macduff.

> And Birnam Wood is Congress on its way to Dunsinane

Macbeth was told that he wouldn't be defeated until Birnam Wood walked to Dunsinane. Putting Congress into this role alludes both to its power to call for Hamilton's removal from his position (as per "Cabinet Battle #1") and the fact that, historically, they were waiting for any mistake to pounce on. Hamilton was constantly forced to work against arbitrarily "impossible" deadlines that Congress set up for his failure and even had to stand trial for "inappropriate use of funds" related to the way that he moved around federal money to different accounts to make it easier to do his job, thus taking too much power, at least in Congress's mind. It is very possible that, if he hadn't gotten his debt plan through, he would have been forced to resign by Congress. 


End file.
